News: BTB: National Signing Day: Who Were The Cowboys' Five-Star Recruits Out Of High School?

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The Cowboys have five former five-star recruits on their roster right now. Do you think you could name them?

Wednesday is National Signing Day for high school recruits making the jump to college. If you're into that type of thing, the writers at the SB Nation mothership are all over it, and you can check it out here:

National Signing Day 2017 schedule: When dozens of star recruits are set to commit
Predicting where the top 12 uncommitted 2017 college football recruits will sign
Ranking all 50 states by elite recruits *per capita*

We are but a humble NFL team blog, and our concern is primarily about the Dallas Cowboys. So as we approach National Signing Day, we won't look at the high school prospects and where they commit. Instead, we'll go through the Cowboys roster and check out where Cowboys players ranked when they left high school.

There are currently 73 players on te Cowboys roster, including six on injured reserve, twelve signed to a reserve/future contract and two more on the PUP and NFI lists. Five of those players were former five-star recruits coming out of high school. Care to take a guess who those five players are?

It's not Ezekiel Elliott (former 4-Star recruit), it's not Dez Bryant (4), and despite his high draft pedigree, it's not Morris Claiborne (3) either. It's not Zack Martin (4) or Travis Frederick (3) or Dak Prescott (3), so who does that leave?

According to the Rivals database, OT Tyron Smith, OG La'el Collins, LB Jaylon Smith, RB Darren McFadden and QB Mark Sanchez are the former five-star recruits currently on the roster. The database doesn't go back far enough for some Cowboys like Tony Romo or Jason Witten (Rivals has only been in operation since 2001, Romo graduated from high school in 1998, Witten in 1999), other players simply weren't ranked. Overall though, the list below is pretty interesting to look at. If you click on the link provided with each name, you'll be able to see some of the colleges that recruited that specific player. Or you could laugh at the high school pictures of the players - check out Travis Frederick without the beard! For your convenience, the table is sortable (simply click on the blue headers to sort).

Cowboys players ranked as high school recruits

Name​

Pos.​

College​

Star Ranking​

Link​

Ash, Richard​

DT

Western Michigan​

4​

Rivals

Bailey, Dan​

K

Oklahoma State​

- -​

Rivals

Beasley, Cole​

WR

SMU​

2​

Rivals

Brown, Anthony​

CB

Purdue​

3​

Rivals

Bryant, Dez​

WR

Oklahoma State​

4​

Rivals

Butler, Brice​

WR

San Diego State​

4​

Rivals

Carr, Brandon​

CB

Grand Valley State​

- -​

Church, Barry​

S

Toledo​

3​

Rivals

Claiborne, Morris​

CB

LSU​

3​

Rivals

Cleary, Emmett​

CB

Boston College​

3​

Rivals

Collins, La'el​

OL

LSU​

5​

Rivals

Collins, Maliek​

DT

Nebraska​

3​

Rivals

Cooper, Jonathan​

OG

North Carolina​

3​

Rivals

Crawford, Jack​

DE

Penn State​

3​

Rivals

Crawford, Tyrone​

DT

Boise State​

4​

Rivals

Davis, Ryan​

DE

Bethune-Cookman​

- -​

Rivals

DeBord, Clay​

T

Eastern Washington​

- -​

Dunbar, Lance​

RB

North Texas​

2​

Rivals

Durant, Justin​

LB

Hampton​

2​

Rivals

Edwards, Kadeem​

OG

Tennessee St.​

- -​

Rivals

Ezekiel, Elliott​

RB

Ohio State​

4​

Rivals

Escobar, Gavin​

TE

San Diego State​

2​

Rivals

Evans, Shaquelle​

WR

UCLA​

4​

Rivals

Frazier, Kavon​

FS

Central Michigan​

2​

Rivals

Frederick, Travis​

C

Wisconsin​

3​

Rivals

Free, Doug​

OT

Northern Illinois​

2​

Rivals

Gachkar, Andrew​

LB

Missouri​

2​

Rivals

Gathers, Rico​

TE

Baylor​

4​

Rivals

George, Jeremiah​

LB

Iowa State​

3​

Rivals

Green, Chaz​

OL

Florida​

4​

Rivals

Gregory, Randy​

DE

Nebraska​

4​

Rivals

Hanna, James​

TE

Oklahoma​

4​

Rivals

Heath, Jeff​

S

Saginaw Valley State​

- -​

Hitchens, Anthony​

LB

Iowa​

2​

Rivals

Irving, David​

DL

Iowa State​

2​

Rivals

Jones, Andy​

WR

Jacksonville​

- -​

Jones, Byron​

CB

Connecticut​

2​

Rivals

Jones, Chris​

P

Carson-Newman​

- -​

Jones, Lenny​

DE

Nevada​

2​

Rivals

LaDouceur, L.P.​

LS

California​

- -​

Lawrence, DeMarcus​

DE

Boise State​

3​

Rivals

Leary, Ronald​

G

Memphis​

2​

Rivals

Lee, Sean​

LB

Penn State​

3​

Rivals

Looney, Joe​

OL

Wake Forest​

3​

Rivals

Martin, Zack​

G

Notre Dame​

4​

Rivals

Mayowa, Benson​

DE

Idaho​

- -​

Rivals

McClain, Terrell​

DT

South Florida​

3​

Rivals

McFadden, Darren​

RB

Arkansas​

5​

Rivals

McFadden Leon​

CB

San Diego State​

2​

Rivals

McKinnon, Jeremiah​

CB

Florida Intl​

3​

Rivals

Moore, Kellen​

QB

Boise State​

3​

Rivals

Morris, Alfred​

RB

Florida Atlantic​

2​

Rivals

Nzeocha, Mark​

LB

Wyoming​

n.a.​

Prescott, Dak​

QB

Mississippi State​

3​

Rivals

Romo, Tony​

QB

Eastern Illinois​

n.a.​

Sanchez, Mark​

QB

USC​

5​

Rivals

Scandrick, Orlando​

CB

Boise State​

3​

Rivals

Seamster, Sammy​

CB

Middle Tennessee St.​

2​

Rivals

Showers, Jameill​

QB

Texas-El Paso​

3​

Rivals

Smith, Jaylon​

LB

Notre Dame​

5​

Rivals

Smith, Keith​

FB

San Jose State​

3​

Rivals

Smith, Rod​

RB

Ohio State​

4​

Rivals

Smith, Tyron​

OT

USC​

5​

Rivals

Swaim, Geoff​

TE

Texas​

3​

Rivals

Tapper, Carles​

DE

Oklahoma​

3​

Rivals

Thornton, Cedric​

DL

Southern Arkansas​

- -​

Rivals

Whitehead, Lucky​

WR

Florida Atlantic​

2​

Rivals

Wilber, Kyle​

LB

Wake Forest​

- -​

Wilcox, J.J.​

S

Georgia Southern​

- -​

Williams, Terrance​

WR

Baylor​

2​

Rivals

Wilson, Damien​

LB

Minnesota​

2​

Rivals

Witten, Jason​

TE

Tennessee​

n.a.​

Wood, Zach​

DE

SMU​

3​

Rivals​

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